Geopolitics & Diplomacy in the 8th century

62 sourced entries, 700 CE to 798 CE, oldest first. Also see Geopolitics & Diplomacy across every century or everything else in the 8th century.

• 700The Eóganachta, an Irish dynasty centred around Cashel, begins to dominate southern Ireland (approximate date).source
• 700King Ine of Wessex begins to dispense with Wessex sub-kings and replace them with ealdormen (approximate date).source
• 701The Gagakuryo (Bureau of Court Music) is formed at the Imperial Court in Kyoto. Numerous types of music and dance are performed.source
• 701Emperor Monmu becomes sole proprietor of all the nation's land, through a codification of political law (Code of Taihō).source
• 704King Æthelred I abdicates the throne after a 30-year reign and becomes an abbot at Bardney (Lincolnshire). He is succeeded by his nephew Cenred (Coenred), a son of the late king Wulfhere, who becomes ruler of Mercia.source
• 705Justinian II ascends to the throne again and rewards his ally Tervel, ruler (khagan) of the Bulgarian Empire, for his assistance with the title of kaisar (Caesar), which makes him second only to Justinian and the first foreign ruler in Byzantine history to receive such a title, and a territorial concession in northeastern Thrace, a region called Zagora in modern-day Bulgaria.source
• 709Ceolred becomes king of Mercia, after his cousin Coenred abdicates the throne. Dynastic rivalries lead to the banishment of his second cousin, prince Æthelbald, who flees to the East Anglian controlled Crowland Fens.source
• 709Kings Swæfred and Sigeheard of Essex share power with Offa. He abdicates the throne in order to become a monk in Rome, along with Coenred. Saelred rules jointly with Swæfberht the sub-kingdom of Middlesex.source
• 710The Byzantine general Leo (future emperor Leo III) recovers the Abkhazia (Caucasus) for the Byzantine Empire, from the Arabs.source
• 712September 8 – Emperor Rui Zong abdicates after a brief reign, in favor of his 27-year-old son Xuan Zong, who ascends the imperial throne of the Tang dynasty (China).source
• 712King Dae Jo-yeong of Balhae (Korea) resumes tributary payments to the Tang dynasty. The Tai peoples are forced to accept Chinese sovereignty (approximate date).source
• 714Duke Eudes proclaims himself the independent prince of Aquitaine (located north-east of the Garonne River), thereby asserting legal as well as practical independence from the Frankish Kingdom.source
• 715Empress Genmei abdicates the throne after an 8-year reign, in which she has built a replica of the Chinese imperial palace at Japan's new capital, Nara. Genmei is succeeded by her daughter Genshō.source
• 717Nechtan mac Der-Ilei, king of the Picts, expels the monks from the island of Iona (Scotland).source
• 724March 3 – Empress Genshō abdicates the throne, in favor of her 23-year-old nephew, Prince Obito, who becomes the 45th monarch of Japan as the Emperor Shōmu. He is the son of the late Emperor Monmu.source
• 724May 2 – Muhammand ibn Marwan resigns as Governor of Egypt after a difference of opinion on policy, and is replaced by Al-Hurr ibn Yusuf.source
• 724July 11 – Prince Æthelbert of the Kingdom of Kent issues a charter that is approved by his father, King Wihtred.source
• 724Cináed mac Írgalaig, also known as "the one-eyed", becomes High King of Ireland.source
• 726Dúngal mac Selbaig is deposed as king of Dál Riata (Scotland). He is succeeded by Eochaid mac Echdach (a son of former king Eochaid mac Domangairt).source
• 727Egyptian military commander Abd al-Malik ibn Rifa'a al-Fahmi is appointed for a second term as the governor of Egypt for the Umayyad Caliphate.source
• 729An alliance between Duke Eudes of Aquitaine and Munuza, the Moorish governor of Cerdanya, is cemented by marriage to Eudes' illegitimate daughter Lampégia.source
• 729King Osric of Northumbria nominates Ceolwulf, a distant cousin and brother of Coenred, as his successor. After Osric's death, Ceolwulf takes the throne.source
• 731King Æthelbald of Mercia overruns a large portion of Somerset, and wrests the county from Wessex control (approximate date).source
• 734During the Third Tikal–Calakmul War, Kʼakʼ Tiliw Chan Yopaat gives himself the title k’uhul ajaw, thus declaring Quiriguá's independence from Copán.source
• 737King Ceolwulf of Northumbria abdicates in favour of his cousin, Eadberht, and becomes a monk at Lindisfarne Priory.source
• 737King Ongendus of the Danes reinforces the Danevirke fortifications in Schleswig-Holstein. He orders a palisade rampart built on the frontier of Saxony.source
• 740The Berber tribes in the recently conquered region of Galicia (northwest Spain) rebel. This facilitates the establishment of an independent kingdom in the Cantabrian Mountains under King Alfonso I of Asturias.source
• 740The Khazars, a nation of the Black Sea steppe, though not ethnically Jewish, voluntarily convert to Judaism.source
• 740The Japanese imperial capital is moved from Heijō-kyō to Kuni-kyō.source
• 743Emperor Shōmu changes the law of Perpetual Ownership of Cultivated Lands. This permits aristocrats and members of the clergy to cultivate land. The new farmland will be called shoin.source
• 744The Japanese imperial capital is moved from Kuni-kyō to Heijō-kyō.source
• 745The newly founded Uyghur Empire controls most of the former Turkic Empire territory, creating an empire that extends from Lake Balkash (modern Kazakhstan) to Lake Baikal (Mongolia), and is subject to Chinese suzerainty (approximate date).source
• 746August 15 – K'ak' Yipiiy Chan Chaak is installed as the new ruler of the Mayan city state of Naranjo in Guatemala and reigns until his death in 748.source
• 749August 19 – Emperor Shōmu abdicates the throne, after a 25-year reign that has been dominated by his wife (and aunt), Kōmyō, a commoner he married at age 16. He is succeeded by his daughter Kōken; Shōmu becomes the first retired emperor to become a Buddhist priest.source
• 750King Alfonso I of Asturias establishes the Kingdom of Galicia, in roughly the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. The exact time this happened is contested.source
• 750Native Americans, in the area now known as the Four Corners, begin constructing and occupying pueblos.source
• 750The Ghana Empire begins (approximate date).source
• 750Gopala I is proclaimed as the first ruler and founder of the Pala Empire.source
• 755November 8 – K'ahk' Ukalaw Chan Chaak is installed as the new ruler of the Mayan city state of Naranjo in Guatemala and reigns until his death in 780.source
• 755The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles description under this date (now dated 757), of King Sigeberht of Wessex being deposed by Cynewulf, is notably fuller than earlier entries.source
• 755Teodato Ipato is deposed and blinded, after a 13-year reign. He is succeeded by Galla Gaulo, who usurps the ducal throne of Venice.source
• 756August 12 – Xuan Zong abdicates the throne after a 44-year reign. He is succeeded by his son Su Zong, as emperor of the Tang Dynasty. He hires 22,000 Muslim mercenaries to reinforce his decimated army at Lingzhou.source
• 758Empress Kōken abdicates the throne, after a 9-year reign. She is succeeded by her adopted son Junnin, grandson of the late emperor Tenmu. He becomes the 47th emperor (tennō) of Japan.source
• 758Desiderius deposes Alboin, duke of Spoleto (Central Italy), and exercises ducal authority himself, tying the duchy more closely to the Lombard capital of Pavia.source
• 765The Zenata Berber tribe of Banu Ifran rebels against the Abbasid Caliphate, and creates an independent state centered around Tlemcen (modern Algeria). Their tribal chief Abu Qurra rebuilds the city (formerly, the Roman colonia Pomaria).source
• 773King Alhred of Northumbria makes overtures of friendship toward Charlemagne (approximate date).source
• 775King Dharmapala begins his reign of Bengal (South Asia).source
• 775Tibet subdues her Himalayan neighbors, and concludes a boundary agreement with the Chinese Tang dynasty (approximate date).source
• 777Abbasid–Carolingian alliance: Charlemagne receives a request for support from pro-Abbasid rulers in the eastern thughur, or military frontier zone of the Emirate of Córdoba. Several powerful officials and noblemen in northeastern Iberia, such as the governors of Barcelona and Zaragoza, seek to rise up against the Umayyad emir Abd al-Rahman I.source
• 779June 12 - In China, De Zong (personal name Li Kuo) succeeds his father Dai Zong, as emperor of the Tang Dynasty.source
• 781April 30 – Emperor Kōnin of Japan abdicates the throne after an 11-year reign, in favour of his half-Korean son, Kanmu.source
• 784Nagaoka-kyō becomes the Japanese imperial capital.source
• 786Egbert settles at the court of Charlemagne, and learns the arts of government during his time in Gaul. During his stay he meets Eadberht, a priest, who later becomes king of Kent.source
• 789Constantine I is installed as king of the Picts. He becomes one of the greatest Scottish monarchs in the Viking period.source
• 789Idris I reaches Volubilis and founds the Idrisid dynasty, ceding Morocco from the Abbasid caliphate and founding the first Moroccan state.source
• 790King Offa of Mercia takes control of East Anglia. King Æthelberht II mints his own coins, in defiance of his overlord (approximate date).source
• 790Cambodia begins to break away from the Sumatra-based kingdom Srivijaya, as a 20-year-old Cambodian prince, who claims descent from the rulers of Funan, is consecrated in eastern Cambodia with the title Jayavarman II. In the next 10 years he will extend his powers north into the Mekong Valley (modern Vietnam).source
• 794Kyoto becomes the Japanese capital, ending the Nara period, and beginning the Heian period; a Golden Age of Japanese culture begins that will endure under the domination of the Fujiwara, Minamoto, Tachibana and Taira families, until 1185.source
• 795Quarrels between the kings Cynan Dindaethwy and Hywel leave the way open for Caradog ap Meirion (the House of Rhos) to usurp the throne of Gwynedd (modern Wales).source
• 796Prince Eadberht Præn leaves the Church, returns to Kent and claims his throne. Eadwald proclaims himself king of East Anglia, but is later ousted by Coenwulf. Direct rule from Mercia is re-established.source
• 798King Charles the Younger, a son of Charlemagne, conquers Corsica and Sardinia (approximate date).source
• 798King Sigeric I of Essex abdicates and departs for a pilgrimage to Rome. He is succeeded by his son Sigered.source